Sun and Novell team up on Java Novell will license Java WorkShop for its IntranetWare By Kristi Essick

November  1996

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Under the terms of the agreement, Sun will license NDS to include with its Solaris operating environment, and Novell will license Java WorkShop for use in its IntranetWare platform and WebNFS for use in its NetWare NFS product.

IntranetWare, which became available last month, is an open standards version of Novell's flagship NetWare product designed for use on corporate intranets.

The two companies hope the alliance will allow developers to create intranet applications based on Java, which incorporate NDS capabilities such as accessing, managing, and securing network information, says Janpieter Scheerder, president of SunSoft Inc.

In addition, the incorporation of Sun's WebNFS technology into Novell's NetWare NFS will allow any WebNFS-enabled browser to access information on NetWare NFS servers over an intranet.

"This is a significant step forward for network computing, and when Sun says network, we mean the intranet," Scheerder says. "NDS will help bring millions of Novell users into the Solaris world."

Sun hasn't decided how it will sell and distribute the NDS technology in the future, but plans at least to incorporate it into its Solaris operating system early next year, Scheerder says. No changes will need to be made to Java WorkShop's environment in order to allow developers to access NDS, since the Java language was built to incorporate new technologies over time.

For Sun the alliance means Java developers will have access to another naming convention -- one used by more than 17 million users in the networked PC world.

Novell on the other hand will benefit from opening up NDS to the Java development world and gain access to the huge installed base of Sun's Solaris servers, says Denice Gibson, senior vice president of Internet products at Novell. IntranetWare's developers will also have access to a high-level Java tool kit, she says. Novell will make Java WorkShop available in the first quarter of 1997.

"Most PCs are networked using Novell technologies and most servers run on Sun technologies," Gibson says. "Novell is trying to make NDS the metaplatform across the board."

Novell and Sun are natural partners to promote the Java environment to developers, creating applications for all networked PCs, she says.

Plus many corporations which are looking to install an intranet are holding off because of uncertainty over which development language is the best base for intranet applications, Gibson says. "We are a hundred percent sure this language is Java," she says.

Industry reaction
Many analysts are positive about the alliance, but not surprised.

"This announcement promotes Java and every big company needs to be promoting Java with its products," says Mary Hubley, an analyst at Datapro Information Services. "While the announcement isn't earth-shattering, it is important in that it reinforces how important Java is in the industry."

While both companies benefit in their own way -- an expansive channel for Sun's Java WorkShop and a toolkit which will help establish IntranetWare and NDS as intranet players -- it's the developer who is the "ultimate winner," adds Evan Quinn, research director at International Data Corp.

Novell also will license Sun's Just-in-Time (JIT) compiler to incorporate with its IntranetWare Software Development Kit for the Java platform by mid 1997, Gibson says. This should make the execution of Java applications faster within the IntranetWare environment.

The agreement is by no means exclusive, since Sun already has licensed other directory services for the Solaris platform, and Novell has partnered with Hewlett-Packard Co., Santa Cruz Operations Inc., and Microsoft for Windows NT.

The two companies also will jointly market the Java products and work on developing Java APIs, which suit both companies' needs.

In a separate announcement, Novell said that it will distribute NDS source code, royalty free, to operating systems developers in an effort to promote NDS as the de facto standard for directory services across a heterogeneous network. --Kristi Essick, IDG News Service, San Francisco Bureau

Resources

• Java WorkShop
  http://www.sun.com/workshop/java/index.html
• WebNFS
  http://www.sun.com/solaris/networking/webnfs/index.html
• Novell Directory Services
  http://www.novell.com/nds/

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URL: http://www.sunworld.com/swol-11-1996/swol-11-sunnovell.html
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